Literature of Comics & the Graphic Narrative

The graphic narrative “The Arrival” by Shaun Tan tells a story about migration, all without using words. The story of an immigrant’s experience in a new country is successfully told through pictures, allowing the reader to have full control of the interpretation of the story. The author guides the reader through the narrative using a series of pictures that act almost like a silent film reel and show the reader the story, rather than just telling it. The graphic novel was initially a much smaller book with more text and fewer pictures, however, Tan felt as though this was the wrong format for what he was trying to say. It took him five years to complete this book, as he would build up scenes from the book and then filmed or photographed them before drawing them on the page. The decision to use pictures instead of words almost puts the reader in the same kind of experience as the immigrant; he is as new to the world as we are to this story. It is up to the reader to